Luukkonen stopped 17 of 22 shots in Thursday's 6-3 loss to the Blue Jackets, with Columbus' final goal getting scored into an empty net.
The Sabres grabbed an early 1-0 lead on a Mattias Samuelsson tally, but the Jackets stormed back with three goals before the end of the first period to go ahead for good, and Luukkonen couldn't stem the tide. Two of the pucks to get past the 27-year-old netminder came on power plays, but it was still a rough way to start the new season. With Alex Lyon (upper body) on the shelf, Luukkonen could see a heavy workload out of the gates -- Buffalo doesn't play back-to-back games until Oct. 12-13.